The Haunted Towers
by Blacksilver17
Summary: So, I started doing a normal story but it turned into a PJ fanfic...Anyway, it's about this girl who's listening to the history of the Haunted Towers. The history involves some of the gods and goddesses, and monsters. Anyway, hope you enjoy::))))
1. Chapter 1

Lucida had been staying in her simple bungalow all her life. She lived in a place where sun didn't exist, where it was forever dark and stormy. Her family wasn't well off- more than a loaf of bread was considered a real feast.

She was looking out the window one day after dinner, sighing and thinking. She was forever doing that.

Across from them were 2 towers. They were made of dark black stone, and strung with moss. Lightning forever flicked around them, and every night, Lucida would see a ghostly woman peek out of the top window. The 2 towers only had a window each- at the top. Grass grew thickly on the tower grounds.

"Aye, those towers come with heck of a story," her father said, coming up to her.

"How did you know I was looking at that?"

"Because I know you," her father chuckled.

"Anyway, about that story. Daddy, I have to write this book report for English but my teacher said I could summarize a story too…" Lucida began nervously. Her father put a finger to her lips.

"_Parum deliciola, ego praedico vobis, imperdiet hoc enim decet. Non possum hoc concedere!_" her father said, using his hands as he talked. When he was upset, he tended to use Latin. He basically said _little darling, this story is inappropriate for school; I can't allow this_.

"But _tata_!" Lucida wailed. (FYI, tata means 'daddy' in this sentence).

"Alright, fine, darling. But be warned. If you decide to use 'Cinderella' or 'Rumpelstiltskin' instead, I'm all for it. Remember, this is just a legend. You have nothing to be afraid of. But here goes nothing," her father said.

"Once upon a time, the towers were a merry bright place. People had parties there every other weekend. Children were laughing and playing while the adults had drinks and talked. The decorations there? Marvellous! The owner of the place was Madly Pete. His name might've been 'Madly' but boy, he was the wisest man on Earth! Always laughing and smiling, inviting people over to his parties without charge. Everyone in the place liked him, and he got plenty of friendship in return. His most famous saying was 'I don't need money to get me through, just time and friends'.

One Saturday, everyone who was invited trooped to his house as usual, but what greeted him or her was a sign that looked like this:

Madly Pete feeling a lil' ill

Thanks for coming, y'all, but the party's cancelled due to his illness

SORRY FOR DISAPPOINTING!

As Madly Pete's mood dampened, so did the sky. It was constantly raining now. Most people understood about the sign they saw, and felt sorry for old Pete. He received dozens of rose bouquets and cards saying 'Get Well Soon' and the like. But there was one person, or association, more like, that disliked this.

See, they used Madly Pete's Parties as a way of socializing and advertising. To them, the parties were purely functional, and were no fun unless the job was done. They didn't care for Madly Pete.

The group started as one rebellious person. This person we call 'The Unknown Whisperer', because we don't know his name, and never will. He rounded up a group of strongly thinking people to his cause. Together, they called themselves 'The Doomsday Formation' and formed a plan: if they could get close to MP's associates, they could murder MP and take over his huge estate and money.

The Unknown Whisperer carried a clock- what we now know as the Clock of Doomsday- and the rest their regular rigging gear. Phase one was complete. Now, they were on the way to MP's bedroom for the murder. But as they went past the treasure room, The Unknown Whisperer's eyes averted, and he hesitated before moving on.

'Guys! Guys!' he hissed at his fellow group-mates, but they forged ahead, completely ignoring him. He couldn't resist the treasure- he left them for the kill and went for the loot instead.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of jewels was there, along with a few million in gold and silver. If he could get his hands on that…he didn't particularly wanted to indulge himself in those thoughts, not quite yet. Don't count your chickens before they hatch, right?

He put down his rigging and the clock on a nearby treasure chest, and produced a bag from his equipment. He stuffed it with as much bounty as he could collect when he heard a scream from down the corridor. It was the scream of his girlfriend, Callida.


	2. Chapter 2

He grabbed the treasure sack and ran as if a pack of wolves was chasing him. "Callida!" he screamed.

He arrived on the scene to find Madly Pete awake, swinging a triple coloured sword: bronze on one end, silver in the middle and gold on the other end. His comrades were getting their rigging, looking for their knives.

"STAND BACK!" he said. "Triple metals are extremely harmful to humans and monsters. That includes you. Unless you want to be squished into a criminal doughnut, I'd suggest you get out of my personal space."

The Doomsday Formation quickly backed up. The Unknown Whisperer's voice barely worked, but he had to try. "G-Get away from my friends," he said. It was barely a statement, much less a command.

Madly Pete chuckled. "Foolish monster. I know who you are. And if you value your life, and your friends, you'll stand back. You probably also know what a triple metal sword can do to you. I'd step back if I were you."

The Unknown Whisperer apparently knew what triple metal swords were, because he stood back. He told his friends to run.

"This is my fight. I dragged you into it. You should go, before anyone gets hurt," he said, his voice ragged with despair.

"He's right," Madly Pete said, swinging his sword casually. "Have you ever taken a look at what your little friend really was? Well have you?"

"He's a good person. He's not perfect, but he's way better than _some_ people, including a person in this room who has a sword and is planning to slaughter some innocents," Callida defended.

Madly Pete didn't look a bit fazed. "Foolish mortal. Your little friend there is a monster. Literally. A hydra-manticore. Show them! Or your little girlfriend is going to be skewered." He held a sword up to Callida's throat. "Oh yeah."

Reluctantly, the Unknown Whisperer slowly changed form. He had 9 heads, each spitting acid, and the body of a lion, with a snake-tipped, arrow-shooting tail. He was now much bigger and taller.

It took all her effort not to scream. Callida, I mean. Who could blame her? She had a weird triple-metals sword to her throat and had just watched her BF turn into a 9-headed, half lion-with-an-arrow-shooting-tail hybrid freak.

"Yes," the Whisperer growled. "Callida, don't be afraid. It's just me, in this form."

"Yes, yes," Madly Pete said impatiently. "A demented one, a hybrid, whatever you want to call him. Quite legendary. The only monster in history that is a mix of 2 powerful monsters."

"Darling…why?" Callida said, voice ragged with despair.

"My father was the hydra. My mother was a class 2 manticore. I became a hybrid. It was my natural form, for some time. Then I grew accustomed to the life of a human, but my parents passed some of their genes over. A hydra is a warrior. A manticore, especially a class 2 one, is a rebellious spirit. That's why we're even here," he explained.

"Doesn't matter," Madly Pete said in irritation, and threw his sword down on his bed. "Monster, you and me need to have a little talk, one mythological creature to another. The rest of you, step outside."


	3. Chapter 3

The Unknown Whisperer was nervous. If monsters knew one thing, it was that they knew a demigod, a powerful one, when they smelt one, or saw one. He knew Madly Pete was very powerful. By the gods, he might've been the child of one of the 3 elder gods for all he knew!

"I know what you're thinking," Madly Pete said. "To answer your question, yes, I am a child of one of the 3 elder gods. I am the son of Zeus."

The monster's mouth hung open. "I-I haven't seen a child of Zeus in over a century," he stuttered. "T-Too powerful. Unpredictable. Zeus forbade that any demigod child be sired by any one of the Big Threes. How are you alive?"

"You didn't let me finish. I was blessed by the gods: Apollo, Athena, Ares, Demeter, Artemis, Hermes, Hecate and Hephaestus. Frankly, Poseidon is bit jealous, personally, and so is Hera. Dionysus wasn't a god when I was born, and Hestia was slowly retreating. My dad figured I had to be either a lover or a warrior, and he chose warrior. He declined Aphrodite's kind services. Unfortunately, the goddess doesn't see it as a kind refusal; more like a rude gesture. Being the goddess of love and beauty, manners aren't far from her territory; it must've insulted her worse than any other god."

"So what if you were blessed?" the monster asked, now more curious than afraid.

"The blessings contain more than a million truckloads of pure energy, powerful power. For any monster to battle that much power… it would be near suicide. I'm quite handy with this sword. A mere touch and even the Goddess Silver will start to marinate you, let alone the Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold."

"So…that's why you're so friendly? Why you can sing like anything? Why you're the best archer anywhere? Why you're a good hunter? Why you're a trickster, a messenger? A blacksmith too?" the Whisperer asked, completely flabbergasted.

"Indeed. If you tried to battle me…unless you had a power worth of a couple of gods, then you would be a worthy opponent," Madly Pete said. "Sigh…honestly, it gets boring sometimes."

"OH YEAH? YOU WANT ENTERTAINMENT? BRING IT ON!" the monster yelled, pumped with adrenalin. "KRONOS I SUMMON YOU!"

Suddenly the room shook. A blast of lightning flashed around the castle. The hydra-manticore glowed with light.

"Yes, a worthy opponent for YOU!" he yelled. "I have summoned the blessing of KRONOS, the evil Titan lord that has the power to take down Olympus! You won't leave this room alive!"

Madly Pete looked unfazed. "Yawn. Seriously? You don't even have a weapon. All you have are your heads, tail and body. Not much competition." He grabbed his triple-metal sword from the bed, and spun it in his hands. "Out of practice."

The Unknown Whisperer's smile glowed evilly in the lightning and darkness. "This will be fun."

All his heads spat acid. Madly Pete was driven into reality as some of the acid got on his arm. "Ouch! Oh, you are going DOWN."

"Bring it on, porky!" the monster cried. I don't know where _that _insult came from. Perhaps because Pete was a little fat…

Anyway, they went on, sword to body. Madly Pete knew the right place to kill a hydra, and a manticore. But a hydra-manticore? Not so much. Until he figured it out, he would need to defend himself from the spikes and dodge the acid.

Madly Pete thought. His mind split into 2 levels- one on the battle, the other on how to kill the monster. A hydra was killed on its body. A manticore too. So obviously the monster would have to be killed on his body. But…where? The monster's body was HUGE. There was the scaly skin of the hydra, the thin line where the 2 bodies met and the spiky manticore skin.

But of course! How could he be so stupid? If he killed the hydra, the manticore would be alive. If he killed the manticore, the hydra was still spitting acid. But if he killed them _together_…

He stabbed his sword in the manticore's hide. The monster grunted and winced, but didn't appear damaged. Madly Pete tried to aim at the line where the 2 monsters met, but the hydra-manticore seemed to know its weakness- it kept backing up every time Pete got close.

That's when the demigod made his first mistake. In a mad grasp for survival, he accidentally sliced off a head of the hydra. This was a mistake, because for 1 head a hydra loses, another 2 grow in replacement. Now he was facing a monster 1-head worse than before.

He kept stabbing, but they affected the monster like bee-stings. Finally, the battle paused, when a huge misshapen 'person' stopped by the window of the tower. He was crippled, and wore a leg-brace. He wore a permanent scowl, and basically didn't look better than a homeless guy, but something about him radiated power.

"What do you want?" the monster demanded.


	4. Chapter 4

**Haha, I left you guys with a cliffhanger sort of last time… Anyway for those who don't remember, the 2 met a man that looked homeless but radiated power…well, just read on.**

Madly Pete, on the other hand, got down on one knee and stuck his hands out like he was praying. "Lord Hephaestus."

The god smiled, as if amused that there were 2 very different forms in the room and both were alive. "Thank you, Pete. As for you, monster, all I want is to give you and my blessed a gift." He held out his wrinkled hands, and 2 small boxes appeared.

He spoke as the 2 forms took the boxes. "Each box you carry each contains a very special relic. You can use it to save your life one day. There are 11 other boxes like this, for both of you, the most powerful monster and demigod of your age. You have to collect them from the 12 Olympians. That means me, my dad Zeus, my mum Hera, my uncle, Poseidon, my brother Ares, my half-sister Athena, my half-brother Apollo and half-sister Artemis, Aphrodite, Demeter, Dionysus and my half-brother Hermes. The more dangerous, unpredictable and mysterious a situation is, the more relics you'll need to save your life. You 2 can either predict the fall of Olympus, or the rise."

Madly Pete stared at the box Hephaestus gave him. The cover was engraved with an Eta, a Greek H, sign of Hephaestus. On the back was a reversed tick, sort of. The Roman V, sign of Vulcan, Hephaestus's Roman name.

"Why would you trust us? We could destroy you," he said.

"Maybe so," Hephaestus said, rubbing his stubbly chin as if deep in thought. "But I've infused you with my power. So have many other gods. If you rebel against us, then it is our fault. We personify you. If you act badly, it's because of us."

"How about me?" the monster growled.

"You were created by 2 of the most powerful monsters known. The Hydra and Manticore both owe us fearsome debts. If their offspring rebels, they know they will be more in debt than ever, or in worst case be killed. If you care about your parents and all of their kind, you won't try anything rash."

The monster backed up with a jolt. Hephaestus and the gods had trapped him.

"I should go," the god said. "Good luck on your journey. May the gods be with you." He then flew off.

Madly Pete put down his box. "Duel to the death?"

The monster put his down too. "Why not?"

And they went on and on, when the clock struck midnight. The monster was unharmed, and Madly Pete was only slightly grazed.

"Midnight."

They turned around, finding themselves face-to-face with a tall, graceful lady, with silky caramel-coloured hair tumbling down her shoulders. It was braided with silver thread. She wore a classic white Greek _chiton _dress that touched her ankles and when she entered the room, the place brightened.

"Y-yes, ind-deed," the monster stammered. He clearly knew who this woman was.

"You're a goddess," Pete guessed.

The lady chuckled. "Yes indeed. You've never seen me before in your life, and I know you despise me."

A goddess. Someone he'd never seen. A person he despised.

"Hera." When the lady smiled, he knew he got the answer correct. "Queen of the Heavens, goddess of family, marriage, motherhood."

"Come sit," she said, and waved her hand. Immediately, a white picnic table appeared and decorated itself with 3 chairs, a tablecloth, sandwiches and lemonade. She looked towards the monster. "And, darling, please turn yourself back into human form. Your manticore hide will really dent my beautiful chairs." She said that like a real mortal mum would say, _Darling, please wipe your feet before entering the house. They'll really mess up my carpet_.

The monster slowly changed back into a human and took a seat with the other 2. Immediately, the lemonade poured itself into glasses. "Do you boys like lemonade? I could always change it to coke or something."

"No, no, really, it's nice," Pete said.

Hera arched her eyebrow. "Okay, then. You both might wonder what I'm doing her. You just met my son, didn't you? Hephaestus."

"Yeah, the one you pitched off Mount Olympus in disgust, right?" the demigod said sarcastically.

The goddess chuckled. "Yes."

"And Heracles, whom you tried to kill a lot of times, right?"

"Yes!" the goddess said impatiently. "Do you have a point?"

"No, no, carry on, _milady_," he said with more sarcasm than detectable.

Hera didn't detect it. "Thank you. Besides, I have a reason to have a grudge against you _and _Heracles. You're both my husband's children by another woman. Anyway, Hephaestus came here, and he offered you boxes like these, right?"

She produced a box that looked like the ones Hephaestus gave them, but they were engraved with a Sigma, the sign of Senior on both sides. The 2 reached out for it, but with a poof Hera made them disappear- the boxes, I mean.

"No. I didn't bless you, demigod. I don't trust the other gods any more than I trust this monster," the goddess said, pointing at the Unknown Whisperer.

"Hey!" he protested.

"Anyway," Hera continued, as if nothing had happened. "I trust the monster will not cause the downfall of Olympus, not while we have his friends and kin at debt, BUT!"

Her firmness was so loud it shook all the silverware. Madly Pete and the monster jumped back at least a foot. "Yes m-milady?" the monster stammered, shaken with fear.

"All I'm asking is one teenie, tiny little favour…" the Queen of Heaven looked hesitant. "Give me back the box Hephaestus gave you. NOW."

**Ahaha! What will happen?**


End file.
